This really rubbed me the wrong way so I thought I'd through up a
rant. I've been a loyal Paypal user for some time. I have a business
account which means that I pay more money per transaction but I can
transfer money out of my Paypal account anytime. I also use their
payment notification system which should, you'd think, mark me as
someone with some technical expertise. Nah. That would make too much
sense.

The other day I was using their shipping system to deliver some tshirts to a buyer, and I was
using the excellent Safari browser on my Macintosh. I had some
problems with Paypal so I thought I'd let them know about them so they
could fix their bugs. [The solution, btw, is to use the Firefox
browser to do the mailing lables instead of Safari.] Here's what I
sent:

Subject: PayPal Shipping with UPS; Doesn't work on a
macintosh running the safari browser.

I was unable to easily print out the labels to ship to my client
when using the Safari browser on a Macintosh.

First off, Safari blocks popups and your system relies
on them. Then when I clicked on the regenerate the mailing label
button, the buttons to print the label would steal focus and so the
printing dialog would not work.

When I said OK or cancel to the "did it print" dialog,
I then went to print the label but it only would show the Sample
label. Finally I had to view source, find the special encoded URL and
view the label directly.

I know you are going to say to use a different browser
(probably IE) but IE is insecure and not recommended on a Macintosh.
Microsoft is no longer developing IE on the Mac and Safari is the
default browser and is supported on 99% of the websites out
there.

I know. Why do I even bother. I guess I'm a bit old school when
it comes to the Net. I send a lot of feedback to people when I see
broken web pages or interfaces. I'm sincerely thankful when someone
points outs problems with my sites and I feel it's all of our
responsibility to help the Web rise about the seething pile of
mediocrity it often is.

The first response from Paypal "customer support" is typical
response from someone who doesn't have the time to actually read
what I wrote.

Thank you for contacting PayPal.

If you are experiencing difficulties while using Apple
Safari Web Browser, below are basic instructions to be used when
troubleshooting issues with the Apple Safari Web Browser (version 1.0)
and PayPal.

How To Clear Cache:
...
How To Clear Cookies:
...
How To Enable Cookies:
...
How To Disable Auto-Fills:
...

If you have any further questions, please feel free to
contact us again.

Sincerely,
Tim
PayPal Customer Service
PayPal, an eBay Company

Well that was less than helpful. Obviously Tim saw the word
"Safari" and clicked the "respond to idiot Mac user" button. "Tim"
could actually be just a robot which looks for certain phrases, and
fires off a auto-response. Either way, it's awful but sometimes the
first line of customer service are droids, so let's try again. But
this time, I'm a bit peeved.

I don't know why I bother sending you guys support mail. My
question is rarely answered. Please read my question and spend more
than 10 seconds on the answer.
[ Copy of previous message follows. ]

Okay, so I figured that maybe "Tim" or another one of the
"customer service" dudes would actually read my question now. WRONG.
Here's their response.

If you are encountering difficulties using Internet
Explorer on Mac OS 9.x and below, we ask that you consider using a
different browser at this time. The error you are encountering is a
well-known and documented issue with Internet Explorer's inability to
recognize valid security certificates.

Approximately one year ago, Microsoft announced the end
of development for future versions of the Internet Explorer browser
for the Mac. With this in mind, you will want to begin looking at
various alternatives available for your Internet browsing needs. ...

Sincerely,
Tim
...

As you can see. Paypal support SUCKS. Either that or Tim needs
some help or at least more time to read the customer questions he is
tasked with supporting. Sigh. Sometimes I wonder why companies
actually post support email addresses. Every time I get good customer
service from an online vendor, I'm impressed. An example of good customer
service is elsewhere in my thoughts list.

I've had usually very good support from Speakeasy.Net. Their
first level support is almost always excellent and they have an online
ticket system which is usually great. But even they screwed up just
recently which cost me time and frustration. Even good customer
support teams are prisoners to bad employees.

What are the alternatives to Paypal out there? Anyone with good
customer service?